Balfe appeared as a violinist at age nine and began composing at about the same time. In 1823 he went to London, where he studied violin with C.F. Horn and played in the orchestra at Drury Lane Theatre. In 1825 he was taken to Italy by Count Mazzara, a wealthy patron. There he studied composition, took voice lessons, and produced his first ballet, La Pérouse (1825). Between 1827 and 1833 he sang leading baritone roles in operas by Gioachino Rossini, Giacomo Meyerbeer, and others in Paris and Italy. His own early operas were written on Italian librettos and produced at Palermo, Pavia, and Milan between 1829 and 1833, after which he returned to London. His first English opera, The Siege of Rochelle, was produced at Drury Lane in 1835. His popularity was established; in 1838 he sang Papageno in the first English performance of The Magic Flute, and with Le Puits d’amour (1843) he began a series of French operas.

The Bohemian Girl (first performed 1843) was the most successful of his operas and was produced in many countries, in French, German, Italian, and Russian. Two of the ballads from it, “When Other Lips” and “I Dreamt That I Dwelt in Marble Halls,” have been published in many arrangements.

Balfe produced several other operas in London; essayed managing and conducting with little success; and between 1849 and 1864 traveled in France, Germany, Italy, and Russia.

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